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^^WM. ELIOT KNIGHT. 



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CONGRESSMAN 



W.CP.BRECKINRIDGE. 



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Copyrighted by 

WILLIAM ELIOT KNIGHT, 
COLFAX, IOWA, 

March, 1895. 



Red-Lebber SErmon SeriGS. 



THB 



Will . c. r. 

Bre ckin ridge 
Defence, 

BY iX 

REV. WILLIAM ELIOT KNIGHT, 

M 
Author of A Pike's Peak Pastoral, The Kennedy Memorial, The Shadows 

that Pass, Etc. 



COLFAX, IOWA: 

THE WEEKLY CLIPPEK. 

1895. 






To MY ALMA MATER, to 1116 alvvays patient, considerate and 
helpful; and wliere 1 learned, so well, tlie lesson: "Now abideth 
faith, hope and charity, but the greatest of these is charity:" 
This sermon, in defence of one of her gallant sons, is affection- 
ately inscribed. W. E. K. 



'' Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
possess no cliarity, 1 am as sounding brass. If 1 liave the gift of 
l)r()piiecy, and understand all tiiat is unknown; indeed, if 1 have 
all faith, a power that is like unto one, that can remove a moun- 
tain, and have not charity. 1 am nothing. 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; 

Charity envieth not; 

Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Dotii not behave itself unseendy ; 

Charity doth not seek her own, 

Is not easily provoked; 

Charity thinketh no evil, 

Rejoiceth not at the sin of men, but rejoiceth in the 

truth and virtue of men; 

Charity beareth all things, hopeth all things, 

endureth all things. 

Charity never faileth, but prophecies fail ; tongues cease and 

knowledge vanishes away. ***** And now abideth faith, 

hope and charity; these three, but the greatest of these is charity." 

—I Cor. XIII. 



PROLOGUE 



This discourse was delivered in the church to which I am 
pastor, durinj? the trial of Col. Brecl?inridge at Waaliiugtou, D. C. 
A large congregation was present, but no adverse comment came 
to my liearing concerning tlie sermon. During my career as a 
clergyman, 1 have never uttered a sentence that was so ill-timed, 
or so hasty, as to require a retraction. I shall not begin it now. 
The only wish that is entertained concerning this address is: 
That its reception, by mankind in general, will be as charitable as 
the spirit in which it was given. 

The sermon had made its way into my "clerical barrel," and 
there it would have remained, had not its publication and dis- 
tribution been demanded by circumstances that need not be ex- 
plained. It has always occurred to me that if we ever help man, 
as such, in a moral way, in this world— and so far as 1 know, we 
won't have an opportunity to do so in the next— we must not 
abuse him, or slander him or exhibit hi in as if he were a beast, 
but treat him as a brother remembering that the man it is God's 
purpose to redeem— man's sin it is God's purpose to destroy. In 
my ecclesiastical training, I make so bold as to believe, that the 
art of abusing, and ridiculing a fallen man, was blue-penciled by 
some wise and mature theologian, perhaps Dr. Broaddus or Dr. 
Hovey or the matchless Dr. Beatty. Let it be so, both now and 
forever. 










SERMON. 



PART I. 

Jesiis said: "1 must work the works of Him that sent Me, 
while it is day: tlie nitiiht comelii, wlien no man can work."— St. 
John IX : 4. 

Life to US is jnst exactly what our deeds 
make it. To most men it means little, to 
others it means much. It is characterized in 
most instances by small deeds and still 
smaller motives. 

" We are as tlie ^rass wliicli to-day is and to-morrow is east 
into tlie oven." 

In this existence the art of using all the 
forces, in the possession of the self, is one of 
the lost arts. 

The executive skill in appointing all these 
forces to office is wanting in most instances; 
in others, it is dormant; or wrongly valued. 
The way from the cradle to the grave, is 
strewn with opportunities; to many hidden, 
and undreamed of, hut to others revealed 
and well used. Man, too, seems to perceive 



6 THE ERECKI.NKIDGK 



quicker, opportunity for pleasure, than oppor- 
tunity for moi'al profit. 

This is an argus-eyed age, let me tell you, 
Avlien every one of the numerous eyes nuist 
needs see far and wide, deep and long. The 
idea of right needs to be right itself, and to 
be so, must l)ecome potent and accurate. 
Yea, verily this is an age ^vhen, man, that 
wondrous architectui'e, of God, should issue a 
proclamation of independence; frame a con- 
stitution and l)y-laws and inauo'urate a system 
of self government, in which he is the sub- 
stance of importance, and beyond Avhich no 
power of earth or hell, can frighten or remove 
him. We should, each day, review our emo- 
tional forces; just as a general i-eviews his 
army. We may not see ours in uniform, 
as does the general see his, yet we may have 
them no less, in stren2:th, and in via^or. All 
of this argues the importance of working 
while it is day. 

Completeness is the result of many forces 
Avorking with the same end in view. 

The snow crystal in all its splendor is the 
resultant of the powers of completeness. It 
uses evaporation, altitude, and attraction ; ex- 
pansion, and contraction. It slights no la^v 
of nature; no matter liow trivial, or ho^v 
unsightly. Indeed, to ignore a single one of 
these principles, would defeat the purposes of 
nature and the perfection that belongs to 
crystal could never be attained. 



l^KFKNCK. 7 



Alas! too often iiieii allow some hypnotic 
external to allure tlieni ; and then to l)etray 
them, and tlien to mock them. 

Learn the lesson the Savior would have us 
learn from the tiny, and simple particle of 

snow. 

Work when? '^Now." "Now,'^ comes 
the response from vaulted chambers of the 
by-gone centuries! "Now," sings the nippling 
river, as it murmurs to tlie sea! "Now," 
whispers that doorless and unseen future! 
"Now," clamors the ancient of days. "AVhile 
it is day !" explained the humljle teacher of 
Galilee. 

Go with us further, take a crystal of 
cpiartz we o1)serve it must have used : Cold 
and heat, water and steam and, in its mechan- 
ism, pressure. 

It was a mighty hand that shaped the 
delicate symmetry. But notwithstanding that 
fact no law was ignored ; each law in the 
minutest detail, ^vorked in supreme harmony. 
United stood the forces, in the line of eifort 
and in the result we see a wonderful triumph 
of art. It is always so, "work while it is 
day ! " Magnificent advice ! 

Let us for a moment resolve ourselves into 
a class in botany. Take plant life, for ex- 
ample, and we find essential to plant develop- 
ment : the germ, the soil, the heat, the light, 
the moisture and the tilling. 

If one of these essentials be wanting, the 



8 THK BRECKINRIDG?: 

plant life, is proportionately wanting in com- 
pleteness. If the lesser life require so niucli 
care surely tlie greater, man's life, requires 
nioi'e care. 

Hence, Ave observe : no small amount of 
foi'esiglit is needed in holding the self in 
check ; and, too, no small foresight is needed 
in the right uses of the right ingredients at 
the right time. 

Man, in fact, has no time to dream. Tlie 
swift tide ever hurries him onward to the vast 
and surging eternity. 

When he reaches his destiny, "Great 
God, " how entirely he has need of Thee ! O, 
may he ^vork! Master! AVhile the sun is 
just peering over the liorrizon ! While the 
de^vs, are yet upon the grasses ! 

" Keineinber, now, thy Creator, in the days of tliy youth; 
when the evil days come not. nor the years draw niii;h, wlien thou 
Shalt say, I have no pleasure in tlieni." 

In our search for the true resources of 
excellence in man, we see very conclusively 
that many men enjoy forces not possessed, or 
at least not used by others. AVe find men 
separated by distinction in birth, in society, 
in culture and in intellect. In our analysis 
of human character we find some men as 
hard, and as im]>ossible to shape as adamant; 
others are as ])liable and as possilde as clay; 
many have rational purposes, others are void 
of all laAvs looking towards conq^leteness of 
the self. 



DEFENCE. 9 



Man should 1)e in every way, superior to 
])lant life. Said the Alniighty, ''I have made 
tliee. " Indeed hast thou made mi:. For 
what? To Avander forty years in the Avil- 
derness ? 

To eat manna? To he engulfed in the 
slimy intestines of a monster whale? Or, as 
some insist, to mesmerize a donkey that he 
may talk, and act as if he were otherwise 
possessed? For what hast thou made me? 

To keep inviolate the Mosaic ritual? To 
make a golden calf while my Leader is in 
touch with His Creator on Sinai? Never! 
Never! Never was man created alone for 
that. 

For what, then, was he created? Turn 
with me for reply to the first chapter of 
Genesis and the twenty-sixth verse, and read: 
"Let Lis make man in Our own image and let 
him have dominion over the sea and the sea- 
life* Let him have dominion over this terres- 
trial orh and the life thereof. '' 

What a wonderful inheritance? Man, 
tlius, like Johnson's Prince of Abyssinia, en- 
ters the happy valley. About him he sees all 
the sweets that God's eternal hand can create. 
Everything to please the eye, and to appease 
the taste, and to encliant the ear. 

About him in his paradise, stands, com- 
plete and charming, his Eve. She possesses 
all the attributes of a goddess. In her com- 
plex, and gentle nature slumbers the only 



10 THK BRKCKINRTDGK 

and coinnianding power tliat could ever 
check man's conqne>;t, and leadership in Eclen. 
She speaks and man becomes at once, trans- 
fixed and stupified. He Avritlies in the agcmy 
of resistence for a ])rief while and then falls 
at lier feet, an allured and hel})less captive. 

Here it Avas that man became fii'st effect- 
ed by adverse conditions. Here it was he 
first attempted to leave off his duty while it 
was yet day. Now he begins his arduous 
journey up a dangerous and rugged steep 
that has continued to this day. 

Methinks tlie Master accordins; to the the- 
ology of St. John the divine, was tliere. He 
warned man tlien as He warns us now — that 
unless we "work while it is day:" the doom 
is, beyond any controversy : death. Death ! 
Uglv word ! ! I hate it ! And I defy it ! 
But death is the doom, notwithstanding, to the 
body and to the soul ! 

Yes, as in the proposition, man-life should 
be superior to plant-life; but is it? In all its 
intricate phases is it? 

Does man. like the plant, labor while it is 
day? Ah, indeed, it is in the gentle summer 
when the plant does its best. It does not 
wait for an era of hoar-frost or Avhen the 
darkness of night, like a mighty mantle of ill, 
saps its dearest and most potent existence, 
but Avhile opportunity is abroad and 1)ears on 
it< mighty pinions that invisible and invin- 
cible ingredient : I'ight use of power. 



DKFKXCK. 11 



The power "that so clotlies the grass 
wliich to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the 
oven," will, O, my God, yes, bear us up in all 
onr ^vaYs, lest we so mncli as stump our toe. 



PART II. 



In this age of the ^vorld man, alas, too 
often allows all of his moral oxygen to be- 
come either infected by 'some moral contagion, 
or exhausted entirely. In either case he loses. 
His loss is always beyond re})air, too. Our 
mighty church has it in her power to supply 
the moral oxygen for the universe. That 
Protestant and Catholic Christendom does not 
do it is an alarming parody on a great and 
good ecclesiastical conquest. Is it possible 
that our moral oxygen consumers are more 
potent and more exhausting than our moral 
oxygen producers? To my fello^v Christian 
workers, of whatever- clime, persuasion or con- 
dition, let me say, in all love, the moral nature 
can no more exist wuthout moral surroundings 
than natural life can exist in a vacuum. 

Conceive, if you may, of all the oxygen in 
the world being al)sorbed for the space of 
three days. What would be the result? 
You reply : The rush to death would be in- 
stantaneous. The o'raveyard onslausdit Avouhl 



VJ THK BRI-:CKINRinGE 



1)6 teiTil)le. x\s in tlie natural so in the moral 
woj'ld. 

Conceive, if you can, of a church in which 
spirituality lias become a statuette; a pedestal 
of clay transiixed and paralyzed; a memento 
of an era of moral })restige ; a cartoon on re- 
lii^ioii ; a bombastic jjroclamatiou of works. 
Show me, if you can, I say, such an organiza- 
tion and I'll indicate to you a church that is 
not Avorking while it is day. Moreover, I'll 
show you a church whose existence is hardly 
perceived, and in which God's being is only in 
its apologetic state. 

I do not say the church — that institution 
of magnificent ])ossibilities, magnilicent plans, 
magnificent hopes, magnificent triumphs — is 
responsiV)le for the moral deadness every- 
Avhere about us. I do say, however, that I 
am persuaded that we come short of our gloii- 
ous opportunities during this wonderful cam- 
paign that the church, as an entire, is making 
ao'ainst sin and vice. 

It is morning now. The day is clear and 
lu'io^ht. There is not in the azure heavens the 
thinest film of vapor. Not a cloud is visilde 
anywhere. It seems to me as if God has just 
said "let there be light." I see love and 
gentleness de])icted in your faces. Shall we 
work now while it is day? Or shall we, as 
many men have done, wait, wait? Wait until 
the lind^s are old, and the muscles Aveary, and 
the brain inactive? 



dkfkn<:k. 13 



The appeal of the Master has a peculiar 
and superl) directness. It calls for instant 
consideration. It possesses a splendid warn- 
ing to individuals. It has a srentleness about 
it that niiodit he mistaken at a first o^Jance. 
While the appeal is full of an impassioned 
feeling of love and anxiety, it is likewise full 
of peril if we neglect it, and merely speaks of 
an ej'a of darkness. Not physical but moral 
midnight. It is dark, wolully dark, wondei*- 
fully dark, and, when it comes, the star of 
Betnlehem does not penetrate the dome of 
blackness. 

My idea of working in this world for the 
advancement of the kingdom of Christ has 
ever ])een and is now, and, so far as I know, 
Avill always be 

To make all the war one pleases on tlie sin or the sins. 

lioot it out. Burn it. It is infamous. I 
detest it, as I fear it. Sin merits one's con- 
tempt. It needs to be throttled. It has been 
the poison that has deadened man from Adam 
to this day. It has crossed the widest and 
most violent sea. Sin has bridged the deepest 
abyss. It has ascended the highest and most 
dangerous mountain. Aye, into the holiest 
place in this life — the home — it has come. It 
pervades the school. It assails the church. 
[t assassinates the innocent play. Everywhere 
its cruel visage is seen. Ah, the new-made 
and doorless tenement of clay is the result of 
sin. Our prisons are filled with our fellow 



14 TiiK breckinridgp: 



men on account of sin. I maintain, therefore, 
it is your duty and mine to check its awful 
and monstrous onslaug-ht at all times and un- 
der all circumstances, but in so doing" 

Do it in sucli a way as to save tiie sinner. 

Indeed, that is the only l)usiness Jesus 
Christ ever had on this earth. 

"1 came," are liis wonderful words, "to seek and to save the 
lost." 

He defeated sin but he loved the sinner. 
What a pure and useful mission he had. Can 
you see how Ave are to separate the sinner and 
the sin? Can sin, as such, exist in the ab- 
stract? Yes, sin is a damnable contagion that 
rides on the wings of the Avind. It is as a 
roaring lion going about the earth seeking 
subsistence. It has a thirst no man can 
appease. 

Tlie Master has given ns many examples of exterminating the 
sin and at the same time saving tlie sinner. 

Turn with me to the eighth chapter of 
Luke and the twenty-sixth verse. 0])serve, 
the place of this episode is in the country of 
the Gadarenes, adjacent to Galilee. The per- 
sons are the Great Physician and a legion of 
devils. The sul^ject is a man. It is a very 
complicated case. The demons could be got- 
ten out all right. That is not the artful part. 
That is not the principal part. The saving 
the man is what required all the genius of 
Jesus, and demanded all the divinity of the 
Almighty working in perfect harmony. No 



DKFKNCK. 15 



8})ell ever held a man in a more despotic sub- 
jection than this man was held. No terror, 
no matter how acute, ever surpassed his. His 
midnight darkness surpassed all rivalry. No 
man under the quaint and peculiar hypnotic 
control of another can be more absolutely de- 
fenceless than w^as this man of the Gadai'enes. 
This case is recorded, I venture to suggest, on 
account of its seemingly impossible cure. It 
was just, however, what the Master was seek- 
ing. It was day and he w^as in possession of 
all his faculties. Never did man so see an 
unseen opportunity as the Savior saw^ this. 
Observe how^ careful he is. His gentleness is 
matchless. 11 is art is supreme. He did not 
take the man by the collar and shake him and 
say: "You miserable vagabond. You nau- 
seatic prodigal. You satire on existence. 
You unfortunate and Mosaic pervert. Hadn't 
you more sense than to allows the devil to get 
yon? Unpardonable! You surprise me! 
The ages unborn will hold you in contempt. 
Judea will ostracise you. Galilee will spit 
u})on you. Nazareth w^ill even give you the 
cold shoulder.'" He didn't say: "Don't 
touch me. Keep out of the synagogue. Don't 
ste]) on the ecclesiastical grass. Don't come 
to the wedding feast at Cana. " The man's 
state was as pitiable as it ^vas helpless. He 
needed help and he 

Needed it awfully bad ! 

No man gave unto him. Plis remedy must 



16 TiiK bkeckinridgp: 

come from without. He had not had smooth 
sailino: for a loucr time. He had l)eeii hunorry, 
huno'iy, oh, so h^iig! The man had heen wait- 
ing until he had given up in despair, and lie 
says to Jesus, "I heseecli thee, torment me 
not." 

Look at the next picture of the man in the 
thirty-fifth verse. The man, once in the 
power of sin, is delivered and the sin is ban- 
ished. He now sits at the feet of Jesus. His 
mind is back on its throne. He is a rational 
being and 

"llicliarfl is liiniself again." 

This is one of the many instances, ladies and 
o^entlemen, in the Bible of tlie sin beins: check- 
mated and the sinner restored to his own well- 
earned position. Rcc^d. if you will, tJiat beau- 
tiful specimen of literature — the story of the 
prodigal — in the fifteenth cha]:)ter of Luke 
and we have another example of the paralysis 
of sin and the restoration of the sinner. Do 
not f oro'et the fact : 

The sinner is one tliinir. 

The sin is quite another thin^. 

One Christ came to rescue; but the other 
Christ came to condemn. Come "while it is 
day;" let us be about our Father's business. 

The doctor of medicine is wiser, in many 
instances, than his much more metaphysical 
co-worker, the doctor of divinity. The doctor 
of medicine does nothing, if he is wise, that 
will injure his patient. He has only one in- 



DEFENCE. 17 



teiitioii, and tliat is to banisli tlie disease from 
the body, in order tliat tlie man may l)e 
restored. 

Tlie disease to him is one thing, 
Tlie man to him is another thing. 

I refuse to l^elieve that the art of saving 
the man and l^anishing the sin is, in this day 
and o:eneration, anions; the 



"Lost Arts." 



If it is so rated then death and destruction to 
the omnipotent mission of Jesus. Wendell 
Phillips has told us that many of the useful 
arts of the world are lost. They sleep in the 
crumbling vaults of Mexico and Peru. They 
lie buried in the kingly and once mighty pal- 
aces of Bal)ylon. In and about the caverns 
and grottoes of Athens they are concealed. 
Jerusalem, the golden, somewhere near her 
shrines, holds forever some art that, in the 
day of her maidenhood, was accustomed to 
bless mankind. The banks of the Euphrates 
are lined with the silent resting places of the 
the lost arts. They Avill speak no more in 
this w^orld. Arts in speech; arts in eloquence; 
arts in coloring; arts in healing; arts in the 
instruction of mankind. All, all are now 
sweetly sleeping in an indefinite past. We 
may lament their doom, l)ut they ^ are gone. 
Yes, indeed, there is not a grave in all our 
cemetery but what holds some speechless and 
some lost art. Within the heart of every man 
of God's creation is instilled some secret and 



IS THE BRECKINRIDGE 

some peculiarly individual art in touch, in ex- 
pression, in love, in j^rayer, in warning, in 
counsel, in commerce. 

When ^ve bury him we l)ury his posses- 
sion. If we ever know it will be in the other 
world amid the splendor of the redeemed. 
The Christian, whatever else he may be, must 
not be a mere co1)bler in the work of savins: 

CD 

of men. In the person of Jesus he has the 
only real example. We are not concerned in 
what becomes of the sin, l)ut we are interested 
in what becomes of the sinner. To know de- 
mands of us "work while it is day." 



PART III. 



The air-pump is a very simple contrivance, 
but it is a very deadly contrivance. It is de- 
structive to life. Try an easy experiment. 
Take a cat or a mouse; ])ut them, not at the 
same time, but singly, under an air-pump; ex- 
haust the air. The result is too well known 
to describe. Death is sure and instantaneous. 
The natural life of a man, no matter how well 
poised, no matter how physically strong, will 
find it impossible to exist when some great 
air-pump is at work destroying his air. 

The air-pumps in the natural world are, 
however, fewer in nund^er than those in the 
moral world. It is l^ecomino: alarmine: now-a- 



DEFENCE. 11> 



days. One can't go anywhere but wliat some 
monstrous moral atmospheric destroyer is 
just at his heels or toes to rob him of all he 
possesses. It is, indeed, a colossal black- 
mailer. We do so very much need an era, my 
friends, to be inaugurated at once to destroy 
each and every moral air-pump in existence. 
They come into this country from abroad, ab- 
solutely free of duty. Give us a high tariff 
on moral air-pumj^s. Let their sale be de- 
creased by legislation, by education, l:)y reve- 
lation, any way to exterminate their moral 
terror. Not only do they come from abroad, 
l)ut they sirring up in every sacred and secret 
place. In every city, town, village and coun- 
try place they are dominant. Sometimes they 
are almost invisilde. Always they are invin- 
ci1)le and they require the utmost tact and 
skill at our command to master them. What 
man has not felt their power? What man so 
strong that he does not need protection 
against them? Who does not fear them? 
Many of our wisest and' our most talented 
men have been battling for years with some 
secret, moral and deadly air-pump. From the 
age of the revolution to this beautiful day 
men have fought them. 

Among the men of to-day let me name a man whom I have 
known and whom I have admired from my boyhood. 

His name is William Cabel Preston Breckin- 
ridge. He is a man l)eloved and distinguished. 
. The name of his friends is Leeion. 



20 THE BRECKINRIDGE 

Did you ever hear him speak? He is the 
CIcei'o of his day. He is brilliant and elo- 
quent. His delivery is faultless. His poses 
are dramatic and expressive. To say that he 
is a genius is too inexpressive. Did you ever 
hear him speak? He can sway his audience 
like magic. Now he seems to be an easy and 
quiet brooklet, gliding along through fertile 
fields and meadows, merrily singing as it mur- 
murs along into a sea. Now he is a mighty 
cataract, he plunges, he rushes, he drives, 
hurling everything before him, even going far 
into the ocean before his conquest is checked. 
Did you ever hear Jiim speak? Now he is 
like a gentle summer wind, blowing softly 
from some verdant garden ladened with the 
perfumes of the magnolia, the jasmine and the 
oranore. Now he comes like a maddened and 
terrorizing hurricane. He rushes past at an 
augmented rate of speed and is lost amid the 
din of his own charming oratory. 

Aside from his ability as a lawyer, stu- 
dent, orator and statesman, he is a man of 
rare personal charm. Being handsome in fea- 
ture, robust in physique, not tall but well-pro- 
portioned, erect and perfectly poised, he has 
an advantage indescri])ably great. If he has 
neglected to o1)ey the advice of the Master in 
the context, should we? 

The fact that we see marked evidences of 
the moral air-pump's existence is one of the 
best arguments we have for checking its 



DEFENCE. 21 



efPort. In doing so, however, do not kill or 
destroy tlie man for 

Tlie air-pump, if it try ever so hard, can do no more tlian that. 

The substance will always be greater and 
grander than the shadow. In our work, in- 
deed, "we must be as wise as serpents and as 
harmless as doves." The statesman in our 
halls of legislation, the doctor of divinity in 
our church courts, the vag on the common 
highway needs the same loving salvation. 



PART IV. 



In all your experience as a Christian work- 
er, have you ever seen a man you could feed 
unless he was hungry? He must be in need 
of food before he can possibly be benefited by 
having a sumptuous banquet at his disposal. 
Change the illustration. Did you ever see, in 
all your Christian experience, a man who 
^vouid sit beside a well-heated steam radiator 
at noon-day in July? No, 1)ut in winter when 
there is a damp and dismal blast from the 
north, and the thermometer is ten degrees be- 
low zero, then he needs the w^arm and genial 
fire to cheer him, for he is cold. Ah me, 

"But yesterday the word of C?esar miifht have stood against 
tlie world, now lies he there and none are so poor to do him 



reverence." 



Oh shame ! Oh shame ! ! Oh shame ! ! ! 



22 THE BRECKINRIDGE 

It is no wonder to me that my Master and 
your Master aptly said "he that is whole 
needs no physician, hut they that are sick. " 

This is the first time in all my 1)rief recol- 
lection that Colonel Breckinrid^^e has needed 
aid, or sympathy, or counsel. He made a mis- 
take. He has confessed. He is in the terrible 
tide that dashes old and young to destruction. 
He is pinioned hand and foot. The drift 
wood seems to avoid him. Look, he moves 
towards the current. The abyss is just l)e- 
low ! I do not see a single life-1 )oat. Is there 
no rescue? 

Help! Help! Help! 

I do not care what other men want, 1 )ut as 
for me give me a friend who comes to my res- 
cue when I need him ; who comes to tell me of 
danger ; who sinks with me in my struggle for 
victory. 

To justify the sin of one man, upon the 
ground that some other man has committed 
the same offense, is a weakness. It is a sham. 
If I commit an error in life I find very small 
consolation in noting the number of passen- 
gers in the same boat. This very thing many 
men do. I do not want an eri'oneous act ever 
condoned, liut I ^vant a broad and 

Mighty principle of Immanitaiianisui. I do not 

Expect to be cut adrift and l)e left at the mer- 
cy of a set of merciless and pitiless critics and 
persecutors. 

Indeed, He said well, "I must ^vork the 



DEFENCE. 23 



^vorks of Him that sent Me wliile it is day, 
wlien the iiio:ht cometli no man can work." 
The author of this text was always on the 
watch-tower. His glass was always in the 
best seeing order. He wanted to know if the 
winds ^vere for or against his mission. 

He was the signal service officer of His clay. 

He never doubted that the blizzard was wont 
to occur in the moral sky and thence in the 
moral earth. H He observed 1894 years ago 
that the moral l)lizzard would occur at this 
time in the United States. He noted it, be 
assured, in 

Heaven's registry. 

Jesus Christ broke the record in the use of 
small things. He even used the tiny mustard 
seed. He did not object if the fishes of the 
banquet of the five thousand were small. The 
lad was small, too. It was a splendid propor- 
tion, but the Master used them. Beautifully 
economical was our Savior. The poorest peas- 
ant was of great value to Him. The Highest 
Official in the land was the object of his love. 
The city with her pomp, pretentions and 
perils was of no more importance to Him than 
the meanest and meagerest village. 

How intricately complete was that same Jesus! 

The little child in the dingiest tenament was 
as attractive to Him as the one in an Hero- 
dian palace clad in camel's hair and fine linen. 
We need to learn the when, and the how, 
and the whom from the Master. He tells all 



24: THE BRECKINRIDGE 

tlirougli His hoolv. No man is too weak or 
too busy, or too idle. It may l)e we must l)e- 
gin a season of eye-opening, or casting out 
devils, or liealino^ the sick in a fio'urative sis;- 
niiicance, l)ut certainly 

Tlie time and tide wait for no man. 

Even the ardent worker for God is not given 
a dispensation of rest. 

Kemember tkat we are invinci1)le. AVe 
are under the leadership of the Great King 
and our strength is in ])roportion to our faith. 
"As we have opportunity, therefore, let us do 
good unto all men. " 

Don't help the devil any more than we have to. 

Making war on mankind is one of the best 
aids Satan has. 

The work God has sent us to do is mani- 
fold. We are to teach. We are to persuade. 
We are to watch. We are to appoint. We 
are to warn. We each have a realm over 
which God has ap]X)inted us to rule. We 
must exercise care and dispatch in doing His 
bidding. 

Therefore, no life rec^uires more genius and 
tact and skill than the Christian life. To be 
an earnest worker for the Master urges cer- 
tainly mucli consecration. The old, old story 
needs to be told in the same old loving way. 
Turn to the second clause in the verse, 'Svhen 
it is night," or poetically expi-essed, "when 
the night cometh. " A time of darkness thus 
begins. The pressure is so great man is en- 



DEFENCE. 25 



tirely overcome. He sleeps; he dreams. Not 
only is lie uniit to work, but lie is unable to 
work. But this is the natural darkness. The 
Jesus meant 

When the moral darkness conies man is disqualified. 

When his sun rises and sets under a cloud; 
when his struggle for life is met with disaster, 
let him try ever so hard he can do nothing 
efficacious ; yet it does not follow that he has 
no moral oldigations to meet. He has, and 
the penalty is on account of liaving lost his op- 
portunities. How soon and how surely the 
moral night comes to us invisibly. "Haste, 
for all things are ready!" 

There is a penalty that comes if we neg- 
lect to "work while it is yet day." I lu'ing 
you an easy refei'ence. It is from Mr. Dar- 
Avin. Good because it is external testimony, 
or I regard it so. He says: "In the develop- 
ment of the higher from the lower animal, we 
find the parts used by the lower organism, but 
not used l)y the higher, disappear from the 
higher. " 

There was a time when all birds and other 
fowls were web-footed. This was, however, 
when swimming was necessary to a fowl ex- 
istence. In time from marine l)irds came 
those that lived on land. The Aveb foot, no 
longer being a necessity, disappeared. When 
birds depended upon fish for subsistence they 
had long beaks l)ut when they could obtain 
land-food the long beak gradually disappear- 



26 THE BRECKINRIDGE 

ed. The argument is the same as to man, be 
his composition from a monkey or from the 
earth. The unused part becomes dormant and 
useless. It is very reasonal)le to say that an 
unused spirituality dies. 



PART V. 



We are now passing from a lower to a 
higher life. Our cause is real and calls for 
advocates. We should plant our standard in 
every citadel, in every home, Jew or Gentile, 
bond or free. 

We hear the cry of the distressed and per- 
ishing millions every\vhere. The conquest of 
sin is active and aggressive. The service of 
sin enchants and then mocks us. 

The warfare of the church against the evil 
of the world is assuming great and puissant 
proportions. Each Christian should l)e an 
armed warrior to repel the phalanx of slavery. 
Each household should be a tower of stren2:th 
for the kingdom; each hearthstone a ])ulpit 
of power and a resource for God. Amen. 

Let me say in conclusion, my hearers, that 
to me the best inheritance we have in this life 
of Jesus Christ is the repentance of the of- 
fender and the forgiveness of the offended. 
Destroy forgiveness and you tear off the best 



DEFENCE. 27 



codicil to the Bible and restore us to a dis- 
pensation that would beggar the richest of us 
and return us, worm-eaten and diseased, to the 
mother earth. 

In the Holy Book I find this forgiveness 
the basis of the death on the cross. The or- 
thodox w^orld revolves about it. It is the 
anchor of the church. It is the holiest vest- 
ment of the believer. The New Testament is 
a dissertation on forgiveness. "Forgive and 
ye shall be forgiven. " Yea, indeed, 

Father forgive lis our debts, even as we forgive our debtors. 

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; 

For Thine is the power, and the wisdom, and the glory. 

Both now and hereafter. 

Amen. 



HON. WM. C. P. BRECKIN- 
RIDGE, M. A., LLD.. 

Class 1855 Centre College. 

Possibly one of the most distingnisbed families 
in the State of Kentucky, if not in the South, is that 
of Breckinridge. Tliey begin as soon as civilization 
lifts its head on the crest of the Alleo-henv Moun- 
tains. Yea, at the very dawn of the day in the west 
they begin to plan the temple that each generation 
of that clan has aided to finish. 

Sometimes it looked as if that same temple was 
to be razed to the ground. Then, again, it seemed as 
if it would only suffer a few assaults from the enemy, 
thus spurring the builders on to its completion. 
Then, indeed, it would seem as if an unkind multi- 
tude would not only hammer the symmetrical struc- 
ture into an unrecognizable mass, but that they 
would totally annihilate the material out of which 
its structure is being made. 

I refuse to believe, however, as many have as- 
serted, that the circumstances of this age forbid 
the development of great men; or that the Henry 



30 ESSAY 

Clays, or the Websters, or the Calhouns, or the Lin- 
coln s are a thing of the past. 

I am led to believe, though, that the unrestrict- 
ed, ridiculous and immodest cartoonist, the sensa- 
tional and unthinking reporter and the credulous 
public are, in a measure, against the modern man's 
attaining collossal proportions. 

Yet we have left, after all, a generous, kindly, 
and emphatically American spirit ; one, too, in all 
its inexhaustible richness, just as it was first ex- 
haled bv the framers of the constitution, and under 
which wonderful sway we, as a nation, have attained 
such giant proportions. 

We need justly feel proud of Kentucky for the 
great struggle she has made, despite the constant tide 
of human ingress and egress, to maintain a loyal and 
generous family relation. There, as nowhere else 
on this soil, they hold family connection as an almost 
div^ine heritage. 

In the early life in the land of the "cane and 
the wild turkeys" we find the name of this Breckin- 
ridge tribe identified with the education of the west. 
They possessed rare qualifications as educators. By 
some ancient heritage they were leaders of men. 
They did not follow. They, as a class, remind me 
of what Cassius said when his friend wanted to allow 
Cicero to become one of the conspirators against 
Julius Caesar. Cassius promptly said : '*]No. Have 
you ever known Cicero to follow what other men be- 
gan ? " 

In most places in our country, if we have taken 
the pains to observe, we have often seen men who 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 31 

thought in advance of their fellows. I name, for 
example, Henry Ward Beecher. This noted orator, 
student and philosopher said, in a lecture he gave at 
the Masonic Temple Theater, at Louisville, in the 
spring of 1885, that "the Confession of Faith of the 
Westminster Divines could not, as it was, longer 
stand modern criticism." I quote the idea, not the 
language. In a few years I w^as amazed to find that 
many of our largest presbyteries that, at the time of 
the lecture, regarded Mr. Beecher as a man-freak in 
biblical exegesis, actually voted to revise the Con- 
fession of Faith. 

The Breckinridge men have thought in advance, 
as a rule. Yes, by nature as well as by heritage this 
family led. In civic, military and religious affairs 
they led. They used the church, the bar, the acad- 
emy and the college all, to develop the brain and the 
heart of the New South. Certainly, at times, their 
power has been curbed, but it has never been 
checked, for it is as relentless and as unswerving as 
that of the gods. From such a race of men was the 
subject of this little essay born. The auspicious oc- 
casion took place not very far from the city of Balti- 
more, Maryland, on the 28th day of August, 1837. 
He belonged to a clergyman's family, his father 
being one of the most eminent preachers of his day. 
This fact gave the infant an influence of sacredness, 
I venture to assert, he has never, to this day, forgot- 
ten. The preachers of that day were indeed a pious 
and peculiar set. I call to mind one example that 
very pointedly brings out this idea. 

In the early days of Kentucky, along in the 



32 ESSAY 

thirties, a friend of a family well known in cluirch 
circles died. The family called upon their pastor to 
officiate at the friend's funeral. It happened, as it 
very frequently did in those days, that the deceased 
enjoyed no churcii relations. Many of his religious- 
Iv-inclined relatives,' however, had come to the fu- 
neral services, arid some of them from a considerable 
distance. Of course, evei-vone was arixious to have 
everything pass oft* as nicely as possible. The time 
of the funeral was at hand ; the congregation was at 
hand ; the pastor was at hand. The lattei* stood on 
a slight elevation, and the congregation got good and 
ready for an all-afternoon discourse. The clergyman 
I'ead in a monotonous tone the 103d Psalm. He 
then closed the Bible, cleared his throat and, with- 
out even changing his tone of voice or batting his 
eye, pointed to the casket with his long, cadaverous 
linger, and remarked: "Brethren and Sisters : If 
the Bible is true that man is in hell." 

While the utterance was decidedly unkind and 
untimely, no one doubted its truth. The preacher, 
too, it is safe to conclude, was more literal in his 
life, manners, and sermons then than now. 

In the Breckinridge manse the "spare the rod 
and spoil the child" doctrine was one that was re- 
garded as famously true; while the favorite dogma, 
"Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," was both 
preached and practiced in all of its Presbyterian 
freshness and vigor. 

The boy grew and the boy prospered. He was 
born, I have said, near Baltimore — not a bad place 
to be born, certainly — but his infant eyes never, 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 33 

during a period of responsibility, looked on 
that city of moninnents and oysters ; for in the 
sweet dream of babyliood, when only warm sun and 
gentle winds fostered his growth, he was transferred 
to Kentucky, at that time, like the boj^, nnknown 
and untried. They, the boy and the state, begin the 
stru2'£:le for life tosrether. I know one was a bit 
older than the other, but what boots it? They are 
surrounded by tlie sublimest climate God oyer gaye 
to man. The resources of both are well-nigh infinite. 
The one uses the material only to carry out a fixed 
and great ]>riiiciple. The other uses mind ; mind, 
in all its intricate and perplexing habiliments. In 
the two we see the relationship that exists between 
mind and matter. The one sustains the other. The 
mind goyerns the matter. A divorce of the two is 
as impossible now as it has been always. Ex nihilo, 
nihil fit. 

When William C. P. Breckinridge reached his 

teens, like most other boys who attain that gawky, 
nnattractiye and unwelcome period ; that hostile age 
when a boy reaches the period of "don'ts" absolutely 
and in toto ; yes, the yery period when, for a time, I 
can testify that a boy is under a law as rigid as that 
of the Mosaic dispensation, and the which a mother's 
tenderness can't even shake; when wha'-eyer a 
boy does, wherever he goes, whomever he visits, the 
parental and friendly injunction is, ''Don't." When 
he came to his teens, 1 say, his home influence had 
already decided that he should go to college. It was 
simply foreordination, and the lad deserves no direct 



34 ESSAY 

at all : it was in his infant's creed, and he wisely 

made no objection: but in the autumn, 

"The season of deepest reflection. 
When a damp day at breakfast begins with dejection," 

lie said icood-bve to his home, and with his hand bag 
and tooth-pick turned his back on the dearest sur- 
roundings a boy ever has ; the only place where a 
boy really ever lives. Indeed, we little dream, as 
we happily tell the dear friends at h(»me good-bye, 
and amble off to some college, that from and after 
that day we are strangers and wanderers. It may 
be for a time, but it is apt to be forever I 



PART 11. 

When the younger Breckinridge reached Center 
College that place of learning had already become 
famous in the north and south and in the east and 
west. Its excellent instruction, splendid location, 
influential friends and illustrious alumni, conduced 
to make it the real Princeton of the west. 

In the year 1837 the late Samuel Dickerson Bur- 
chard, the clergyman who, at the James G, Blaine 
reception in New York made the famous "Rum, lio- 
manism and Rebellion" speech, had been graduated. 
Here, also, United States Senator Yest, of Missouri, 
had learned his first impressions. Just a few years 
before that date Ex-Governor Beriah Magoffln, the 
war governor of the state whose skill held Kentucky 
in the United States during the late discomfiture, had 



W. C. p. BRECKINEIDGE. 35 

grnduated, and in 1835 tlio gifted and gentle Ormond 
Beattj iiad qnitted her quiet walls. Here, too, liad 
been graduated U. S. Cungressnian Josliua Fiy Bell, 
one of tlie most gifted men of iiis day. To these 
could be added the names of other gentlemen of dis- 
tinguished and gallant parts, both in civil and eccle- 
siastical life. 

When the subject of this essay reached college 
early in the fifties he found the Rev. John C. Young 
at the helm of the executive department. The fac- 
ulty of instruction was well equipped to receive the 
ambitions youth of the noj-th and the south. Young 
Breckiiiridjje entered the colleii^e class that was billed 
to reach destination in June, 1855 ; that is to say, 
they were to reach the anxiously looked-for haven at 
that time if the mental traces didn't break. 

It was a bright September da}^ when the famous 
class of 1855 set sail. The sea was calm and the 
wind was blowing a balmy gale to the seaward. 
Everything smiled — even the sedate and prosy 
professors. The boys were actually jubilant. The 
Fates had already whispered into their ears that they 
were to be, in their day and generation, renowned. 
The steam is on and away they go. 

Aboard we find, upon consulting the college 
registry : Heman Allen, now^ president of Prince- 
ton Academy : Thomas P. Barbour, of Texas ; George 
T. Barrett, of Illinois; William Breckinridge, of 
Kentucky ; Governor John Brown Young, the 
youngest man ever elected to the United States Con- 
gress ; Governor Thomas F. Crittenden, of Missouri, 
who "wanted Jesse James, dead or alive," and so 



36 ESSAY 

piiblislied the reward ; Fountain T. Fox, now a well- 
known lawyer and author ; Thomas Marshall Green, 
an accomijlished editor and writer. Then conies the 
name of John O. Hodges, a favorably known educa- 
tor and iV)uriialist ; Andrew Carr Kemper, a promi- 
nent physician of Cincinnati ; then General Torn 
Morrow, an accomplished gentleman, both in a civil 
and a military line : alongside of him comes General 
J. F. Phillips, of the United States armv, and con- 
gressman from Missouri ; then comes Hon. Boyd 
Winchester, United States minister to Switzerland, 
and Andrew Irvine, Totn Young, Henry M. Scudder, 
C. W. Metcalfe, the lamented James Thomas, James 
Humphry Thwaits, and John Hall ; then Thomas 
Ditto and Addison Craft. 

At this time Senator Joe Blackburn and Yice- 
President of the United States Adlai E. Stevenson 
had not attained the dignity of passengers. They 
were only members of the crew. The former belong- 
ed to class '57 and the latter to class '56. 

There has been no period in the history of Cen- 
ter College that excelled in intellectual vigor the 
era when William C. P. Breckinridge was a student. 
This quaint revival of brain force, then, is due to the 
character of the times I'ather than to any s})ecial 
psychical training at the college. 

The memory of Henry Clay was still fresh. He 
had died only a few years before this. He had been 
kept constantly before the public in various ways. 
His influence, there is no doubt, stimulated thought 
as no one man's has ever done before in the Xew 
Southwest. The atmosphere, too, was hazy with the 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 37 

din of civil discord. Brain vigor was in demand. It 
was jnst here that tlie old college, of which Mr. 
Breckinridge is an aluinnns, began to dictate the 
politics of the State of Kentucky and she has contin- 
ued to do so, with very few exceptions, ever since. 

In college life latin, greek and mathematics are 
the first considerations. When you have learned 
your lessons you may go to cliurcli ; for a boy who 
has not done his entire duty before going to divine 
service, will feel verv small when the averasfe collesfe 
]iarson gets tlirough with him. I used to observe, 
when a student, that many of the boys, after church 
on Sunday, would go home and, under the cutting 
lash of the pastor's sermon, dive in and study their 
lessons like good fellows. Mind you, Sunday work 
was, in a way, forbidden, but the impulse to do so 
was almost irresistible. 

Politics in college is a secondary affair, but, just 
tlie same, it is right here the boys begin their cam- 
paigns and learn, to the utmost degree, skill in polit- 
ical fencing. To the college boy a victory in the 
literary society is regarded as exultantly as if he had 
just been named as embassador to St. James' court, 
while a defeat chagrins him to the end of his natural 
life. I liave never gotten over my ''knock-out" for 
first 22d of February orator — a thing I never really 
merited, for the very next week the victor in the con- 
test was suspended from college for some offense, 
and I have seen him no more to this day. The poli- 
tician in the college class is as distinct and as well 
spotted as the theologue. Didn't you know that? 
In fact more so, because I know of some men who 



38 ESSAY 

are well liked pastors now and if, at the end of tlieir 
senior year, one had told me that they were to be- 
come preachers I should have been veiy much sur- 
prised ; while the politician in college stood out 
abrupt and readable. 

Class 1855 are at anchor in a tranquil bay now. 
How splendid ! Tlie battle is over. The victory is 
won. Just bevond thev see the city. From a dis- 
tance, after a four-years' drift on the turbid sea of 
investigation, how charming and real she seems? 
Tliey can see, glittering in the tropical sunshine of 
June, the glistening domes that religious and civil 
liberty had gilded. Influenced by tlie soft, bamlv 
wind tliey see, nodding to and fro, long rows of 
shady trees that peaceful hands have planted. Be- 
yond, they see the busy toilers and the happy 
homes. Hurry ! Give them their degrees ; the race 
is on. A few hasty good-byes. A few merry songs 
and they are off; for weal or for woe — they are oif. 

^ -Sf -JJ- * ^ -X- ■Jf- 

" There was a sound of revelry by nVht, 

And Bekium's capital had gather'd then 
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright 

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ; 
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 

Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spal^e again, 

And all went merry as a marriage bell; 

But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !" 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. , 39 

PART III. 

Immediately after graduating at Center, Mr. 
Breckinridge entered the University of Louisville 
where, two years later, he made his Bachelor of Law 
degree. That would bring us to 1857. He is now 
into the arena of life. He is onlv "one amono; 

t/ CD 

many," but if we lose him ''it doth leave but ninety 
and nine." In 1857, I say, he is less than twenty- 
one years of age. As young as he is he has become, 
though unconsciously, a leader of men. 

'' When he came to man's estate it was all the 
estate he had." That matters little, however, for 
how many men have experienced the same misery, 
and what, for a time, seems tlie most ponderous bur- 
den of them all becomes the yavy stimulant that in- 
spires them on to destruction. 

When young Breckinridge quitted the university 
how attractive it all seemed. He is free at last! 
Blissful state ! Everywhere he went he saw brave 
and gallant men, and beautiful and refined women, 
but notwithstanding all this, little clouds are floating 
here and there about the nation's horizon. They be- 
have so peculiarly, too. They are not the ordinary, 
fleecy clouds that fly past and away, that empty 
themselves and immediately find relief, and vanish. 
No ! They are congealing into a solid and foreboding 
mountain. They are changing color. See ! They 
become black and dangerous. 

The year 1860 dawns and passes. In 18f)l the 
clouds grow larger and blacker. In congress is the 



40 ESSAY 

debate, but in the country is tlie cannonade. On the 
thirteenth of April, that year, the United States gar- 
rison at Fort Sunipter, near Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, lowered tlie stars and stripes and surrendered to 
General G. T. Beauregard, of tlie Confederate army. 

* * * Vf * * •X-Tf 

Tinmediately followine^ this, the chief executive 
of the nation called for, by proclamation, seventy five 
thousand volunteers. 

Willia!n C. P. Breckinridsre was at this time a 

in 

mere lad. A boy in the south does not mature so 
quickly as a boy in the north, but a girl in the south 
matures quicker than a girl in the north. I know this 
by careful and by comparative observation. 

But lad as he was when the smoke of battle be- 
came dense he saddled his horse, shouldered his gun 
and listened to the lumbering musketry for four years. 

That was a stormy life to live. In peace any 
man can live, but in w^ar, indeed, to live is an effort. 

Let me say that a man partakes of the nature of 
his surroundings. He can't help it. 

When I meet an old soldier I do not care where 
he fought, so far as the judgment is concerned ; I do 
not judge him as I would a man who had only lived 
under a dispensation of peace. The old soldier is 
still about the battle fields of Shiloli and Perryville, 
or Vicksburg, or the Wilderness. He is not in the 
North or the West. 

The old soldier from '61 to '65 underwent exper- 
iences that it nearly shocks us to death to think of. 
We just can't see how he possessed such endurance. 

It has often been asked me: Why is it the men 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 41 



who were in the service of 1S61-T)5 die so young? 
Tlie auswer is siiriple enough, indeed. The men who 
developed passion during the war can't get it sup- 
plied during times of peace. That passion must die, 
and sometimes its departure kills the possessor of it. 

I do not mean to even suggest that the soldier 
lias no responsibilitv. He has. But we do wrong to 
iudo-e him harshly, without remembering that he is 
a veteran of a perilous act in our national history. 

I protest, too, against the general idea of taking 
the evil a man may do and forming a conclusion of 
liim. We can't, really, suppress the good deeds of a 
man and publish abroad his evil inclinations, and 
then give to posterity a just and unbiased judgment 
of the style of a man we are trying to describe. 

Of all our legacies I think honesty is one of the 
very best. I rank it with virtue and charity. To be 
honest let us hear the entire testimony. Let us see 
the good and bad pictures in the life of the character 
we analyze, be he a god or be he a devil! 

Young Breckinridge cast his lot with the South 
and was defeated, lie attained the rank of colonel 
of the Ninth Kentucky cavalry. 

At the conclusion of the war, when peace was 
declared, he returned to Lexington. He w^as, as has 
been suggested, in his former days, '^one among 
many," but after the war times he was one among the 
few. 



42 ESSAY 

PART IV. 

. "Hear the mellow wedding bells- 
Golden bells! 
What a world of happiness their harmonj- foretells T 
Through the balmy air of night 
How they ring out their deliuht!''— Poe. 

During liis residence at Lexington be met and 
married Miss Deslia, a daugliter of Di\ Deslia, a 
prominent man in business and social circles in tbe 
State. 

Lexington society is of an excellent quality. Iler 
women are pretty, graceful and accomplisbed. iler 
men are polite and brilliant. 

Tbe city surpasses in bospitable bomes, in excel- 
lent scbools and well provided public buildings and 
churclies. Tbe locality is unsurpassed by any I bave 
seen from Maine to California. Tbe country about 
tbe city is regarded tbe finest agricultural region in 
tbe Soutb or West. 

It was bere Col. Breckinridge made bis borne, 
under tbe broad-spreading trees and in a quiet street. 

No borne in all tbe city bad a better foundation 
tban tbis one. Tbe wife presided over it witb rare 
dignity and grace. Sbe was true and loyal as I re- 
member ber. 

About tbat borne w\as, at all times, a rare degree 
of taste and culture; notbing faulty or immodest, but 
all tilings seemed to beat in an barmonious and de- 
ligbtful unison. Witbin tbe pale of tbe bouse was 
gentleness. Tbey were polite to one anotber, and 
none excelled in tbis line tbe paterfamilias. As I 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 43 

recall liim, when I was a mere boy, lie was regarded 
as a model of politeness and good breeding. 

I wish with all my heart that a home when it is 
once established w^onld stand at least for several gen- 
erations. T know they won't, however, and yon and 
I will no donbt see them, many more times, made in 
the morning and by nightfall they are gone. 

On the Breckinridge home pros])erity smiled. 
His ready wit, keen satire, ripe scholarship, and his 
brilliant and eloqnent oratory at once gave him access 
to the wealthy and inflnential families in the blue 
grass region. 

The children of this home gave inspiration to 
their parents. They partook in a large degree of the 
mother's rare qualities and of the father's intellect. 
As time went on they passed into the larger and more 
romantic domain of womanhood and manhood. 

The mother of the home, never very strong, a 
few years ago folded her garments about her, bade 
her loved ones farewell, stepped into the little bark 
and silently crossed the river and was soon lost amid 
the brilliant lights on the other side. ''O, death 
where is thy sting." "Come, let as cross over and 
lie down under the trees." 

I venture to believe that when a man follows the 
remains of the wife of his boyhood and manhood to 
the quiet but doorless grave, he leaves in and about 
her speechless body many of his dearest and fondest 
hopes. Many of these hopes never return, and man, 
like the poor prodigal that he is at best, thereafter 
*' treads the wine press alone." Indeed, "I would 
not live alwav." 



4:4: ESSAY 

PART V. 

At the coiiclnsioM of the war Col. Breckinridge re- 
turned to Lexington and became the editor of the old 
''Observer atid Reporter." His journal, at the close 
of the late unpleasantness, wielded a good influence 
and aided in a srreat measure to heal the feelino: that 
at that time had become so saturated with revenge 
and remorse. 

Ilis editorials were always pointed, well ex- 
pressed and studied. The period of the reconstruc- 
tion in the Soutli needed men to shape jMiblic oi)inion 
in the best and most j»ainstaking way. It was a his- 
tory making era, wdien thought became an indispensa- 
ble necessitv. Public men were compelled to sacri- 
lice personal inclinations for future good. They had 
to forget self and think of others. In no period in 
the history of the South has there been a more press- 
ing demand f<)r men of wisdom than the time when 
the "Observer and lieporter" lived under the manage- 
ment of Mr. Breckinridge. 

When he severed his connection with the editor- 
ial fraternity he became a professor in the law de- 
partment of the Transilvania University, which posi- 
tion he tilled with credit to himself and profit to the 
students. 

As a lawyer he is best known and honored. 
No man within the bounds of the state enioved a 
more extensive practice than lie. His clients were 
absolutely safe in his hands. He was not such a law- 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 45 

yer as tlie man at court described the witness for the 
defense. 

The judge said to tlie witness for the plaintiff: 
''Yon say that you would not bclieye the \yitness for 
defense under oath ?" 

To which the witness replied : ''Yes, sir; I said 
so, and I say so again; I wouldn't believe him under 
oatl 



1. 



?5 



The judge said : ''Why wT)uldn-t you believe 
him?" 

The witness replied: "His business is against 
him." 

Thereupon the judge wanted to know what his 
business was, and the witness scored a triumph by say- 
ing, vQvj unconcernedly: "Well, sir, he is a lawyer." 

Colonel Breckinridge w^as not the style of attor- 
ney the man described. lie enjoyed the confidence 
and the esteem of a prosperous, influential constitu- 
ency. 

I remember very well when it was currently ru- 
mored that he had misused large sums of his clients' 
money. I know, too, that the report was as false as 
it was unkind and unjust. 

At that time his overthrow was as impossible as 
is that of Gibralter. When he wanted money he told 
his friends and he got it. The amount was not so 
much as a question. 

Slander is the only thing we have left, in this 
w^orld, that has the real brimstone smell of Calvin's 
devil about it. It is the only thing we have to kill 
now, and then we can get ready for the "thousand 
years of peace." 



46 ESSAY 

If slander and truth should make a race for a 
public office — presuming that Truth would, under the 
circumstances, run for a public office — it would be no 
trick at all to '"spot" the successful candidate. 

It should not be so. The art of conversation is 
no doubt a blessing to mankind; but, when the tongue 
slanders, the art of conversation is the most infamous 
curse that mankind has inherited since the flood. 

Not long ago I sat at the dining table, in a prin- 
cipal hotel not far away. I was alone, but I soon 
discovered from the talk of the other guests at the 
table that they were eminent people. One of them 
was a defeated candidate for the office of governor of 
Iowa, and the others were prominent politicians from 
a sister state. 

The conversation drifted to the unkind and un- 
principled political slanders that get abroad during 
campaigns. 

The Iowa man exhibited the little inexpensive 
diamond shirt stud that lie said the opponents in his 
State had said had cost fifteen thousand dollars. In 
my judgment the button didn't cost twenty dollars. 

Ah! slander is an ugly and dangerous thing. It 
isn't cute. It is mean, and low, and cowardly, and 
deadening. 



W. C. p. BRECKINRIDGE. 47 

PART VI. 

When the Hon. J. C. S. Blackburn was elected 
to the United States Senate, tlie old Ashland Con- 
gressional district — better known as the Henry Clay 
district— began to look about for a representative. 
After a thorough canvass of each and every aspirant, 
William C. P. Breckinridge was chosen to represent 
the district. When he entered upon the duties of a 
congressman he did so at a direct financial loss to 
himself. Yet he felt assured that his constituency 
were men, and being men his career in the United 
States Congress must from necessity be one of con- 
tinuous conquest. How ably and capably he acted is 
well known. At once he became noted as the most 
polished orator in the United States. They had him 
to make after-dinner speeches in Boston. They in- 
vited him to come and play the hero at the Plymouth 
Rock celebration. New York couldn't have a league 
meeting but the silver-tongued congressman from 
Kentucky must be present. My! He was the Trilby 
of the political world. He was a sight-draft whom 
everybody honored. The Columbian Exposition in 
Chicago named Mr. Breckinridge as the man who 
should occupy the place of honor, and when he de- 
clined it was an occasion of universal regret. He all 
along has been a national favorite in the speech mak- 
ing line. When his admirers called he always re- 
sponded. He was never too much engrossed or too 
indifferent. Have we rewarded him ? 



48 ESSAY 

In June, 1SS5, tlie curators of Center College 
honored the Ashlaiid district representative with the 
iioniination as the aluinni orator. The vast audience 
who heard him when he was at liis best will always 
remember the occasion with pride. Few men ever 
formed such sentences, ^o man ever made such ges- 
tures. Such a voice oidy endows seldomly. Take his 
movements, his poses, his gestures, his facial exi)res- 
sions, his tones and his voice, and jou get the ideal in 
dramatic art. The natural to him in his orations just 
comes; it is not studied. He is not a poet like Edgar 
Allen l*oe, and yet his orations are poems. He does 
not ring, like Tennyson, and yet, to hear him speak 
is to feel of the poetic genius. 

in 1886 the college of which Colonel Breckinridge 
is an aUunnus conferred upon him tlie degree of 
Master of Arts and Doctor of Laws. From a schol- 
astic ]>oint of view tlie distinguished statesman ranks 
second to none. 

So far as my voice goes when a man does an 
error, no matter as to its nature, and comes to me 
and wants another chance, 1 always give him another 
chance, and then I do but very little. I do not appeal 
for man's sin or passion. I appeal for man — he is 
like his God — immortal ! 



EPILOGUE. 



House of Representatives, 
Washington, D. C, Feb. 11th, 1895. 

Rev. W. E. Knight. , 

My Dear Sir: I am very iimch obliged to you for your 
kind letter of the 7th, and still more for the cordial friendship 
which no slander nor trial has weakened. Your grandfather was 
my friend from the time I first commenced to practice law until 
his death, and I appreciate hereditary friendship, such as you have 
so bravely and loyally shown. 

If it were not for such ministers as you, it would seem as if 
everything that we consider peculiar to the character of Christ had 
been eliminated from the lives and dispositions of his professed 
witnesses. 

* * * * -X- * * * 

But 1 assure you that such letters as yours, which I receive 
from every part of the country, have been much more than com- 
pensation for the abuse which such newspapers as the "Register" 
pour upon me. It is cowardly as well as a malignant form of en- 
mity to abuse a man at such a distance as to render redress impos- 
sible. 

With kind wishes for you and yours, I am 
Sincerely your friend, 

VVm. C. p. Breckinridge. 



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